Francisco López Contardo is among the finest in rally raid on each two and 4 wheels, however has been neglecting the previous because the flip of the last decade as he established himself in a side-by-side car. This weekend, he gave the bike realm some love as soon as extra when he completed second within the Knowledgeable Pairs class on the Desafío del Desierto.
Knowledgeable Pairs was one in all 4 classes on the race by which a number of riders raced collectively, both sharing a motorcycle or driving collectively on their very own automobiles. López collectively competed as #30 on a Honda CRF450 alongside former Honda rally raid manufacturing unit rider Jeremías Israel, the latter on his separate bike.
One in every of six Knowledgeable Pairs groups, the 2 beat Vicente and Rodrigo Moreno for the category win by only one second, then elevated the margin to 2 minutes on the second leg. Nevertheless, Israel ran out of gas 500 metres earlier than the Stage #3 end, costing them time because the Morenos edged out by 4 minutes. By the tip, the Morenos’ 3:38:34.33 beat the López/Israel tandem’s 3:40:11.68.
“Chaleco” López started his profession in motocross and enduro earlier than operating seven Dakar Rallies on a motorcycle from 2007 to 2014, scoring eleven stage wins and a finest end of third in 2010 and 2013. After a five-year hiatus, he returned to the Dakar in 2019 within the SSV class and gained on debut. Since then, he has loved super success on 4 wheels with two extra Dakar victories in 2021 and 2022, the latter coming within the T3 class (now Challenger) for purpose-built racing SSVs. He additionally claimed the inaugural World Rally-Raid Championship in T3 in 2022 earlier than scaling again his calendar since 2023 to concentrate on elevating his new child son.
The Dakar is his solely W2RC race of 2024 up to now, the place he completed fifth in Challenger with a Stage #5 victory. He isn’t registered for factors.
López was not the one W2RC competitor current as RallyGP common Pablo Quintanilla, SSV driver Rebecca Busi, and Rally3 factors chief John Medina made the journey from Argentina, the place they had been racing within the Desafío Ruta 40 two weeks prior. Quintanilla completed runner-up to Gabriel Balut in Tremendous Knowledgeable by two minutes whereas Medina was second in Large Path Moto behind Mauricio Achondo. Busi, the one non-Chilean entered, completed fourth in UTV Knowledgeable; she had misplaced fifteen minutes in Stage #2 when her intercooler pipe disconnected. RallyGP competitor José Ignacio Cornejo was additionally purported to take part however storms within the mountains prevented his bike from making it on time.
The race comes on the heels of one other rally bike ace-turned-car star who returned to his roots. Final week, six-time Dakar motorbike winner and thrice automotive victor Stéphane Peterhansel rode a motorcycle as soon as once more on the Swank Rally di Sardegna and completed third.
